ABSTRACT
Contemporary Vedic sacrifices performed in a private sphere are generally carried out in order to prevent or combat personal sufferings or to achieve a specific worldly wish. This chapter analyzes to what extent a process of transformation and (re)creation of emotions takes place in the private and public sphere in India. Emotions, in Vedic sacrifices can either be expressed by ritual actions, or that ritual itself can be regarded as a representational medium in which already existing or new emotions can be embodied or communicated. What differs in the contemporary practice from traditional performances is inter alia the yajamana’s intention. The following three snapshots of more or less public sacrifices performed in 2009 reveal different prevailing emotions. In each of them, certain basic emotions were not only proclaimed by the organizer; to a certain extent it was also dominant among the participants: happiness or joy, amusement and leisure, and fear and sorrow.
